


Jacques Au Lanterne

by Bobcatmoran



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Canon Era, Gen, Halloween, Jack-o'-lanterns, gratuitous violence towards root vegetables
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-30
Updated: 2014-10-30
Packaged: 2018-02-23 07:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2539019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bobcatmoran/pseuds/Bobcatmoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One evening in late October, Feuilly entered the back room of the Musain to find Jean Prouvaire industriously mutilating a turnip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jacques Au Lanterne

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darthfar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthfar/gifts).



Feuilly had long since grown to accept that Jean Prouvaire's outlook on life came from a very different place than his own. Still, it came as a surprise when, one evening in late October, he entered the back room of the Musain to find Prouvaire industriously mutilating a turnip.

"What on earth…?" Feuilly asked, dumbfounded.

"He is carving the head of Jacques au Lanterne," Courfeyrac said knowingly, not taking his eyes off of whatever it was that Prouvaire was doing with a knife to the defenseless root vegetable.

"It's a Jack O'Lantern," Prouvaire corrected. 

"Who?" Feuilly asked. "And why?" he added, eyeing the pile of turnip bits sitting at Prouvaire's elbow. "That's a waste of perfectly good food there."

"It's a tradition of the Irish," Prouvaire said.

"To cut turnips into bits?" Feuilly asked, sitting down next to Prouvaire despite himself, attracted by the promise of broadening his horizons by learning something about another culture.

"There's a story behind it," Prouvaire said, his voice taking on a cadence and strength that Feuilly recognized from poetry recitations. "There was a man named Jack, who was so evil that the Devil met him outside a tavern on All Hallow's Eve. 'I'm here for your soul,' the Devil told Jack.

"'Ah, you can have my soul, right enough,' Jack said, 'but first, let me have one last drink.' Jack, however, was out of money, so, not about to refuse a man his last request, the Devil turned himself into a coin so Jack could pay the barman.

"Jack took the coin and put it in his pocket, next to a silver cross so the Devil couldn't escape. 'I'll let you go,' Jack told the Devil, 'if you let me live for one more year.' The Devil accepted.

"At the end of the year, the Devil came for Jack's soul again, and Jack again made one last request, this time for a last meal — an apple from the tree he was sitting under."

"Not about to refuse a man his last request, the Devil climbed the tree. Jack carved a cross into the tree, and the Devil was trapped. 'I'll let you go,' Jack told the Devil, 'if you never claim my soul.' The Devil accepted again.

"Jack, however, was dead before the year was up. He was such an evil man that they wouldn't allow him into Heaven. But when he turned up at the gates of Hell, the Devil recognized him. 'I swore not to claim your soul,' the Devil told him, and gave Jack a single burning coal to light his way to wherever he may go." Prouvaire settled back down into his chair and receded into silence.

"Erm, that's a very lovely story and all, Prouvaire, but that doesn't explain what you're doing to that turnip," Feuilly pointed out.

"Oh! Well, Jack put the coal inside of a gnawed out turnip to light his way. So he's Jack O'Lantern — Jack of the Lantern, you see?"

"But you said the turnip is Jack O'Lantern," Feuilly protested.

Prouvaire responded to this by making one last gouge into the turnip, then proudly turning it around for inspection. "Look, it's a skull!"

Feuilly supposed it could be one if you squinted.

"Is it supposed to have one eye higher than the other?" Courfeyrac asked. "And what's that gash down at the bottom meant to be?"

"That's its mouth," Prouvaire said in an injured tone. "Honestly, you'd think you'd never seen a skull before."

"Why on earth does it smell like _Brassica_ in here?" Combeferre asked, entering the back room. "Oh," he said, upon seeing the pile of turnip bits. "Prouvaire, what did that poor turnip ever do to you? Is there some significance to those holes you carved in it?"

"It's a _skull_ ," Prouvaire said, gesturing towards the turnip in exasperation.

"I was unaware that root vegetables had skeletal structures," Combeferre said. "And that is a very oddly shaped nasal cavity."

Prouvaire, sulking, took a candle stub from his coat pocket, lit it, and put it inside the turnip.

Combeferre watched this display with some interest. "Is there some reason why you have a vaguely skull-shaped lantern made of a turnip?"

"It's an Irish tradition," Prouvaire said, glaring at the vaguely skull-shaped lantern in question.

"All right then. Please just don't set any fires. I don't think Louison would look well upon us if we had a repeat of last week's incident."

"That was two weeks ago, and honestly, you can hardly see the char marks any more," Courfeyrac said.

"Nobody has any appreciation of my attempts at bringing a taste of the exotic into here," Prouvaire said to no one, still glaring at the Jack O'Lantern.

"I appreciate it," Feuilly said placatingly. "Although you have to admit, turnips aren't very exotic."

**Author's Note:**

> Historical note: Turnips were often used in Ireland for Jack O'Lanterns until fairly recently, pumpkins being fairly exotic there. The story that Jehan tells is one often cited in relation to the origins of Jack O'Lanterns, but the connection is tenuous at best.


End file.
